Live by T-Mac, Die by T-Mac

I watched the Rockets-Blazers game last night, and very little looked good. The defense wasn't great, Ron Artest (while coming through in the clutch for Houston with a final-second stripped ball from Brandon Roy) didn't shoot well, and (worst of all) Yao continues to seem tired out there. T-Mac, however, seemed to remember that he is not Ray Allen but Tracy McGrady, and so stopped settling for outside jump shots. He drove his way to the basket, scoring in the paint. That's what Ron Artest needs to do - the guy is so big and so strong that I wonder why he settles for the 3-point shot when he can easily get down low.

But while Yao struggled throughout the night, he came through in the final seconds of overtime, hitting a clutch fade-away jumper and getting the foul. He makes his freethrow, and the Rockets are up by 1. But there is still 0.8 seconds on the clock.

So Portland inbounds the ball. Brandon Roy (in such a simple play that I can't believe the Rockets fucked this up) runs back to 3-point territory, takes the inbound and fires, making the shot and winning the game. If you watch the replay, you can see T-Mac hesitating for just one freakin split moment, allowing Roy to get separation and fire before Tracy can get in his face. T-Mac just blew his coverage, plain and simple.

Interestingly, this game brings up that whole "don't let the ref decide the game" thing. I hear that a lot, but I've always doubted its truth. It seems to me that the foul call on Yao was legit. If that was a foul in the first four quarters, it was a foul in the closing moments of overtime, and I think referees should make that call. It's usually anti-climactic to end a game on a free throw, but fouls should be called consistently.